How Portland Teachers Use Meal Planning and Gardening To Stay On Budget

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Welcome back to Rose City Receipts, a regular Stumptown Savings column! In this feature, we step inside the kitchens of Portland-area residents to explore their shopping strategies, approaches to meal planning, and the delicate balance they strike between staying on budget and indulging in our vibrant local restaurant scene.

Today, we hear from Katy, a fifth-grade teacher residing in the Foster-Powell neighborhood. A dedicated knitter, sourdough baker, and kombucha fermentor, Katy walks us through how she and her husband (also a teacher) manage their busy professional lives. She shares how they integrate harvesting from their garden, flexible meal prepping, and quality time with their adult children into their routines.

Who are you? I’m Katy, a public school teacher, posting on Instagram as @whatkatydid65. Married to Scott, also a teacher. We are empty nesters who enjoy growing food in our yard and cooking from scratch whenever possible.
Where do you live? SE Portland, in the Foster-Powell neighborhood
What’s your weekly grocery budget (roughly)?: About $200-$300, depending on the week. We do a Costco delivery every two to three weeks, and supplement from WinCo in between. We also dine out every week. The amount will depend on how busy we are at work and if we are taking a kid out for dinner or not.
How many people are you shopping for?: 2
What are your favorite stores?: Costco, WinCo, Hong Phat
What’s your top priority when it comes to grocery shopping?: Our priority is to keep a pantry and fridge stocked with healthy options so we can prep food for a busy week. We harvest from our garden, then see what we already have that can complement it, and then make a grocery list. Most of the time, our grocery items revolve around stocking up on good values for food we know we will eat.

We grapple with meal planning every week. We start with the best intentions on Sunday, and by Wednesday, we can’t even look at the fridge. We aim to balance dining out in the neighborhood with home-cooked meals. Our neighborhood has some favorite spots, and they give us something to look forward to as our busy weeks unfold. We also go out to eat to spend time with our adult children. 

We start with a Costco shop-up every two to three weeks, which consists of dairy, eggs, canned goods, and produce. Believe it or not, we spend less at Costco by having it delivered. The prices are slightly higher, but we only get what we need and avoid impulse purchases at the warehouse. 

Once we check what is in the freezer/fridge and what we harvest from the garden, we plan our food prep for the week. We use the term “food prep” pretty loosely — we would love to be more organized and better at it. I was a homemaker for fourteen years before re-entering the teaching profession, and I began a habit of “smorgasboard” type meal prep due to extreme picky eating. I prep components separately, such as grains, vegetables, sauces, and proteins. Individuals put together the parts they will eat, and voila!  Dinner!

Weekly total: $472. We did our shopping on the weekend before the week I tracked. Most of it will last us 2-3 weeks. We will probably get more fresh vegetables in a week or so from WinCo.
Eating out total: $192
Groceries total: $280
Most-expensive line item: $18 for green tea from Costco
Least-expensive line item: $0.50 for limes from Winco
Number of grocery trips: 2
Number of meals out: 5
Stores visited: 2

I had a productive weekend preparing food for this week. I started a new batch of kombucha and bottled last week’s fermented batch (recipe below). I also baked a few loaves of sourdough bread. 

For quick dinners throughout the week, I cooked a base of brown rice and combined it with frozen shrimp and edamame. The week's meals will also include greens harvested from the garden, which I plan to use in my mason jar salads (recipe below) and in the rice bowls.

When I came home from work, Scott surprised me with homemade chickpea curry, which smelled heavenly. I added that to a bowl of the rice, shrimp and edamame. I had homemade kombucha with dinner.

Monday total: $0 (Did our grocery shopping on the weekend)

Tuesday was more of the same from Monday.

Tuesday total: $0

I was getting tired of salads, so I bought school lunch while at work today. After several days of eating brown rice, Scott and I mixed things up and made our weekly pilgrimage to Slingshot Lounge. Our favorite bartender, Ellen, improvises delicious mocktails for us, and we often split whatever the special is that day.

Wednesday total: $48

It was pizza day at school, which I can never seem to pass up.

Dinner was a slightly more varied version of the earlier brown rice, edamame, and shrimp bowls. I added some kale from the garden to mix up the flavors.

Thursday total: $6

I like to make salads in mason jars for lunch. This week I am eating carrots, tomatoes, and the last of the garden cucumbers, along with romaine. When it’s time for lunch I dump it out on a plate, resulting in the greens on the bottom, then veggies, and proteins on top.

My dinner was a tuna melt from Bodega PDX. Usually on Friday, we get bánh mì ($6.75 each!) from An Xuyen, but since we didn't plan ahead, I opted for a quick walk to Bodega instead. Scott had already eaten by the time I got home, so convenience was key.

Friday total: $15

Saturday was a costly, but worthwhile, day: I attended the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Albany and splurged all my food savings on a spinning wheel — Carpe diem!

My food expenses for the day included $20 for a coffee and a red curry bowl at lunch. Scott's spending was separate; he treated his kid and their partner to an $85 breakfast at Genie’s. We both kept dinner cheap by eating leftovers that night.

I met up with my friend and former teaching partner for brunch at The Eastburn on Sunday, totaling $35.

I set out sourdough the night before to bake bread on Sunday. There was a lot of discard left over, so I made pancakes for dinner. I also bottled up that week’s kombucha.

Weekend total: $140

This week displayed the balance we attempt to achieve. While the Costco receipts are high, the food we buy can last us up to three weeks. We regularly discuss our dining choices and realized that we could indeed save money by eating at home more. However, our dining is tied to experiences we value, and at this point in our lives, it is worth it. 

My weekly routine of sourdough/kombucha/garden harvesting gives me a bit of a routine that I enjoy.  I don't care for big dinners, so I tend to toss components together in a way that sounds good when I get home from teaching all day. It allows for a blend of convenience and flexibility that maximizes time.

These no-fuss salads in a jar offer a quick way to ensure my lunch is healthy and filling. It gets me through the day, and the satiety can help me resist the endless flow of treats that seem to flow through my fifth-grade classroom. 

I start with a can of sardines at the bottom of the jar, then layer in either chickpeas, edamame, or pumpkinseeds, or a combination of all of them. Then I layer in any prepped fresh veggies I have in the fridge and top it off with fresh greens. 

Eat and enjoy!

I don’t drink alcohol, but I enjoy kombucha. I have brewed my own intermittently for years. When I need a new scoby — the symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast that ferments the kombucha — this recipe has always worked for me.  I set it up before we leave on vacation, to give it a good head start. After that initial batch, it can be fermented and bottled roughly every 7-10 days. I always have scobies to share!

My family jokingly calls our sourdough starter the "100-year-old" starter because it's been passed down and shared among us for about a century. I also make sure to share any extra starter with others who want to try their hand at baking.

Ultimately, a starter is a simple science you can eat: combine flour and water and let it sit on the counter long enough, and you'll create one. Feed it regularly and you’ll have plenty of discard to turn into creative dishes like my sourdough pancakes:

First, I want to extend a huge thank you to Katy and Scott for their work as educators! Teachers really don’t get enough credit.

Like Katy, I also enjoy the occasional home fermentation project. After a break of a few years, I'm excited to be getting back into sourdough baking and maintaining a starter. I look forward to getting tips, tricks, and recipes from Katy. One of our shared favorite discoveries is sourdough discard pancakes. I hate throwing away the excess starter that needs to be regularly removed, so I appreciate simple, smart ways to use the discard. Since the pancakes don't really ferment, they offer a subtle flavor that lacks the typical tanginess of sourdough bread.

I've also been into fermenting kombucha in the past, but recently had to toss my old SCOBY. I'm currently following Katy's advice for starting a new one and will update you all on my kombucha experiments — which have, more than once, resulted in kombucha shooting all over the kitchen ceiling!

Fermented foods aren’t only great for you — full of probiotic bacteria — but they’re also a great way to build confidence in the kitchen and learn more about the science of food! Do you have a favorite fermented food or recipe? Let me know by replying to this email or in the comments on this post online!

Want to be featured in Rose City Receipts? Email [email protected] and share your grocery shopping approach!

Happy saving!
Bryan,
Founder/Publisher,
Stumptown Savings